Eastern Phoebe Visits.

    An Eastern Phoebe visited my yard recently.


     I have a bird feeder out my kitchen window. I was trying to see the ground under the feeder to see if any Juncoes were there. I was very surprised to see a bird on the ledge just outside the window. At first I thought it was a boreal chickadee and then I noticed a lack of facial marking and saw the bird was dark gray. I had only 5 or 6 seconds to identify the bird at very close range.


     I know that Phoebes are fairly common. They are extremely quiet  and can be easily overlooked. I know that they like to poke around under eaves and on window ledges looking for insects.


    So I was thrilled to have a Phoebe visit my yard. It was the first Phoebe I had noticed in my yard.


   

   

Eerie Coyote Howl Nearby

    A few evenings ago I was standing on a small foot bridge which crosses Piper Creek. I was visiting a couple of friends and watching the water to see if any Red Backed Suckers or Rocky Mountain Whitefish were swimming up the creek to spawn.

The foot bridge I was standing on.

     All of a sudden I heard extremely  loud howling. At first I didn't recognize it as a coyote howl. I thought it was a siren. Then yes, I knew it was a coyote howl. 

Photo by Bill Heinsen

     Since it was so very loud it must have been close. I would guess they were within 200 m. The area is heavily wooded so it was impossible to see the coyotes. There were two or more howling and the howling went on for at least a minute.

Bower  Woods looking over a large beaver dam.

    This area is completely surrounded by housing. It is about 300 m from the bower Mall. I would suspicion these coyotes frequent the mall at night and do very well as far as food is concerned.


    Usually we hear coyotes from a distance so this occurrence was very different.

Erin Cameron on Earth Worms

     Erin Cameron gave an excellent talk to the Red Deer River Naturalists on earth worms.


     One of the first surprises she gave us was that we don't have native earth worms in Alberta. Where glaciation occurred , our native earthworms were wiped out. Earthworms that we have now have come to us by various methods. 


    Erin Cameron is studying the effect of earthworms in the Boreal forest. The research is only just beginning. Very few answers have been found. They know that earthworms have only recently moved into the boreal forest. Earthworms have been brought in by man rather than earth worms travelling on their own to the boreal. Roads, industrial activity and fishermen have all brought earth worms into the area. They have made extensive counts along roadways and siesmic lines and find that the earth worms are have not gone very far from the roadway. 

     What's the worry about earth worms in the boreal? Some earth worms influence the leaf mold layer on the surface above the mineral soil. Many plants and insect life do not perform well with that layer gone. Two of the earth worm species live in the mineral soil and come to the surface and take the leaf debris into the mineral soil   thus depleting the leaf mold. Other types of earth worms that function only in the leaf mold disappear. 


    So the big question is how the boreal forest will replace itself because of the earth worms which were not here before.?

Large Flocks of Robins in Red Deer

     Today I noticed about 50 Robins in my block feeding on Mountain Ash berries. The first Robin I saw this spring was Mar. 28. I would think other birders had seen robins before that date. I saw only 2 or 3 birds and for most of the time no birds. So today it was surprising to see so many Robins in a small area. I walked around my neighborhood and they were only in my block. Scott Raabis reported the same activity with Robins in his area. I'm sure there were other areas of the city that had the 50 or so robins.


     I think that the few early robins we get are those that winter not very far south from us. The robins that appeared today probably winter much further south and fly north in a flock. The early robins seem to appear in ones and twos.


     The robins today were very active. They were eating large amounts of Mountain Ash berries. They were flying around from tree to tree and across the street. There was much chatter and the odd one was calling for a partner. 


     So it was great to see some action on the Robin front.

Tundra Swans Fly Over City

      Tundra swans flew over me last night as I was out for my evening walk. Tundra swans are majestic birds and when they fly by they catch your attention. These birds flew over about 8:30 PM just before the sun was setting. they were probably looking for the Red Deer River which was about 5 km away. Putting down on the river would give them a safe resting place for the night.


     The swan on the water is impressive because of it's great size and also because it silently and effortlessly floats through the water unless it is attaching some sort of predator. Swans in flight are huge birds which seem to float through the air with very little effort. Hearing the voice from a distance quickly gets your atention. 


     Tundra swans will stay in the Red Deer region resting a feeding until they decide to fly to their nesting grounds On the Arctic coast.

Jack Rabbits Turning Brown

    The Jack Rabbit in my area are half changed to the summer brown. I saw one last evening as he was sitting in a grassy area. He was still quite obvious because there was still quite a lot of white showing. The time is soon coming(I hope) when the snow is gone. If you're a Jack rabbit you don't want to be caught with a white coat when the snow is gone.

We'll soon see these little guys

     For me the changing of the rabbit's color is always a definite signal of the season changing. Other creatures are much less noticeable. The weasel changes but we rarely see them so they do not have such a big influence on us. So another winter is officially over once the Jack Rabbit has changed to the summer brown.

The regular summer Jack Rabbit color. I wonder how many Jack Rabbit have learned this trick?

Bird Focus Field Trip April 2

    The Red Deer Naturalist bird focus group had a very active and successful field trip on April 2. Many migrating species have arrived and they show up in the observations.


    Species observed:
      4 Snowy Owls
      25 Red-tailed Hawks
      22 Rough-legged Hawks
      3 northern Harriers
      5 mature and 1 immature Bald Eagles
      Peregrine Falcon
      Western Meadowlark
      Northern Shrike
      Canada Geese
      Northern Pin tail
      Mallard
      Tundra Swans
      Mountain Bluebirds
      Sand Hill Cranes
      American Tree Sparrows
      Common Red Poll
      Dark-eyed Junco
      American Robin
      Common Raven
      American Crow
      Black-capped Chickadee
      European Starling
      Rock Pigeon
     House Sparrow
     Mule Deer
     White Tailed Deer
     Red Squirrel
     Richardson's Ground Squirrel